Key result
Translational research for autologous tissue-engineered heart valves requires the development of noninvasive in vivo evaluation techniques to establish criteria for clinical applicability.
Translating tissue-engineered heart valves to clinical use requires establishing robust assessment criteria through preclinical animal studies using noninvasive evaluation techniques.
Noninvasive in vivo techniques must be developed to define clinical criteria for autologous tissue-engineered heart valves; leaves open translation pending standardized preclinical validation.
Tissue engineering is currently being actively investigated to ascertain if it can offer an alternative to prosthetic aortic heart valves that may overcome the current limitations of prosthetic aortic heart valves while at the same time conferring the advantages of a living autologous structure, such as biocompatibility, the capacity to grow, repair, and remodel. In vitro studies have shown tissue-engineered heart valves to have adequate structural and functional properties, indicating a promising future for heart valve tissue engineering. However, criteria are required to be able to evaluate autologous heart valves and to deem them satisfactory for clinical use. Preclinical animal studies are needed, as a precursor to long-term in vivo follow-up studies, to establish such criteria. The first challenge is to find appropriate techniques to evaluate the functionality of tissue-engineered heart valves in vivo without having to kill the animal. As such, the development of such noninvasive techniques that are able to assess the functionality of tissue-engineered heart valves is the next step in translational research. This review discusses methods of evaluating the functionality of autologous heart valves when translating from in vitro to in vivo studies and determines potential assessment criteria imperative to achieve clinical applicability of tissue-engineered heart valves in aortic valve replacement.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Hjortnaes et al. (2009) conducted a review in Aortic valve replacement. Autologous heart valve tissue engineering was evaluated. Translational research for autologous tissue-engineered heart valves requires the development of noninvasive in vivo evaluation techniques to establish criteria for clinical applicability.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: